"While valuations are not yet stratospheric we question where the support may come from for continued earnings growth in 2012 and 2013," Pedro de Noronha, managing partner at Noster Capital in London, said.

The plans to merge the Deutsche Boerse with the NYSE Euronext is “far from a done deal,” Benn Steil, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and director of International Economics, told CNBC Tuesday.

There’s an air of paranoia on Wall Street about today’s NYSE spacer deal with the Germans. But history suggests it’s unjustified. Inevitably, the new business unveiled today will also be shaped over time by changing needs.

Retiring in another country used to be a foreign concept to most Americans but it’s becoming more common thanks to two main factors: the Internet and the economy. "All you have to do is think outside the border," one expat said.

Top European Union officials will on Wednesday call for curbs on derivatives markets and greater use of trade policy to reduce volatility in commodity prices and improve the bloc’s access to key raw materials.